Targets for use in competitive shooting sports and in training law enforcement and military personnel are generally static devices consisting of paper, cardboard or steel. Although these targets may have a generally human form, no feedback is provided to the trainee or competitor in terms of whether the projectile “strike” on the target is more or less valuable for the purposes of disabling or immobilizing the target. This is of particular importance in the training of military and law enforcement personnel. Police and military personnel are generally trained to aim for the “Center Of Mass” (COM), referring to the largest target area (the upper chest and torso area of the human body). However shots to the head are more likely to disable or immobilize an armed adversary. For this reason, static targets do not reflect the situations encountered in real life firefights. In these situations the value of a strike to the adversary's head is more likely to disable or immobilize the target than two or more shots that impact the COM. Present targets do not distinguish between a hit to the head or to the COM and do not offer immediate “real-time” performance feedback.
A problem in training law enforcement and military personnel at a shooting range is that the trainees will frequently fall into routines of firing one or two shots at the target and then discontinuing fire. This routine can be dangerous as it does not reflect real life encounters with armed adversaries. There are reported instances of law enforcement officers being shot because they were programmed to fire two shots and then discontinue firing, as opposed to continuing to fire until the target was immobilized.
Further, current targets generally have a COM target of about six inches in diameter and a head target represented by a three inch by two inch rectangle and a hit to each area is weighted the same for scoring. In real life encounters, a shot striking the head is more difficult, but is more likely to disable the target.
What is needed is a target that provides feedback to the trainee or competitor with respect to the number of hits to the target and the value (in terms of disabling or immobilizing the target) of each hit. The present invention overcomes these drawbacks of existing target structures and devices and provides an interactive target that provides real-time performance feedback to the shooter.